Monday, September 26, 2011

In typical Monday fashion, I've been super busy AND my internet is being a...well, you know. It is cutting in and out and customer service has no idea what the heck is going on, so there is a tech coming out. Eventually. You know how techs are.

So I may be MIA for a couple of days.

FYI. In the meantime, tell me what everyone is planning for October and Samhain! October is my favorite month.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

In relation to yesterday's post, I thought I would share this. I found it randomly this morning, and it was to coincidental not to share. Yes, that's right....The Church of Bacon. Go to the site, click on Church of Bacon, go to Bacon 1:1 - 16 and that will bring you to the section that has this in it:

1.) Before there was anything, there was bacon. 2.) Bacon thought this was pretty boring. 3.) So, Bacon said "Let there be stuff.", and there was stuff. 4.) Now this wasn't as boring as it had been, but it was still pretty boring. 5.) Bacon wanted stuff that moved, so Bacon said "Let there be stuff that moves." 6.) This was also less boring, but Bacon was still unsatisfied. 7.) Bacon thought, "Yeah, they move, but they're stupid. They just run around and make noises and grunt at each other." 8.) So Bacon said "Beetleguese, Beetleguese, Beetleguese!"

gigglesnort.

That's it for today folks. Have a Mabon party to go to tonight, and must get to baking!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Happy Mabon, everyone! I know that "real" Mabon isn't until the 23rd, to which I say meh.

Hope you all have a great day. I'm not going to really post anything, as my brain has died while trying to deal with the crappy new Facebook copy of G+. Join me on the real G+ here. :) Want proof that my brain has died?

When I typed Happy Mabon above, the first time it came out as Happy Bacon.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

In all honesty, it's Sean's day off today and I don't feel like blogging because we have WAY too much to do, haha. This is an article I wrote that I never got around to posting. It has subsequently been published in the summer issue of the Witches' Hour, but I had mentioned to the editor that I would be publishing it on my blog someday. Go check out the Witches' Hour, though - it's great.

So often we as Witches, Wiccans or Pagans forget that prayer can be an important part of our lives. Many of us shy away from the use of the word prayer, either because of the traditional meanings of the word or the Abrahamic connotations.

Whether you feel like calling it prayer or not, the act of talking to deity in a personal manner is incredibly important. We as Witches and Pagans enjoy a personal relationship with our Gods and Goddesses. Meditations of course are wonderful for in depth conversations, but are we Witches or are we Witches? We should converse with deity where we want. We should talk with our deity when the need or want to speak with them strikes us, not wait until we can get to a proper place and cleanse the space.

There is a beautiful element of mysticism inherent in Paganism, but we need to remember that, above all, this is a way for us to live. This is a way for us to connect with the spiritual. We are spiritual beings! Prayer, or simply speaking to deity, can either follow a structure or flow from us as simply as breathing. Neither way is wrong, and each has their place. I see the more structured and elaborate prayer as more difficult. We have all looked up at the sky and spouted off to the Gods at some point, and that is as much of a prayer as anything else. We say things from the heart, and that has incredible meaning.

Equally meaningful is a prayer that you have composed yourself. It is of course so easy these days to find Pagan prayers online; it is not so easy to write your own. Writing your own prayers mightbe difficult for some but it is also rewarding.

So how to write your own prayer? There is a simple formula you can use as a basis, although the words of course must be your own. To start with, it's normal and also polite to say the name of the deity you are addressing. If you just throw your words out there, you can never be sure who is hearing them! You can address deity by name, or simply by Goddess, God, or Lord and Lady.

The second portion is a statement of intent. Why are you praying? Why are you talking with the Gods? For our purpose, we will say this is a prayer for protection while you are driving...I personally seem to attract people who like to cut me off.

The third portion should be a description of what you would be visualizing. White light, fire, or something that symbolizes what you see as protection, thanks, healing, or whatever else you are writing the prayer for.

The fourth portion should be a simple statementof what you want out of the prayer – healing for a specific ailment, to say thanks for a specific thing, or another request.

The fifth portion is optional. I always like to add a “so mote it be” or a “So may it be” to the end of my prayers. To me, it is only polite to let someone know that they can stop listening.

When writing a basic prayer, this is an easy formula to follow! Of course you can keep adding things in until it feels right to you. When it comes down to it, that is what prayer really is – a heartfelt communication with the Gods.

Monday, September 19, 2011

We are still a few days from Mabon, so I thought I would share a recipe for Mabon tea! This recipe is my own, and will eventually appear in my Mabon cookbook. It is a long process so start a day before you want to drink it. The first step is to dehydrate some fruit. Here is what you need to start:

Toss the apples with the lemon juice. This will help them keep their color, but it will also add a bit of a tang to the tea. If you don't have a dehydrator (I don't!) you can do this in the oven with a metal cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet. What I use is actually a mesh pizza pan I got from Canadian Wholesale for 12 bucks. Your local restaurant supply store should have something similar if you like. You can spray the rack or pan with non stick spray, but that will hinder the drying process slightly. I didn't have any trouble getting the dried fruit off without it. Lay the apple and berries evenly on the rack, and place in an oven heated to 170°F. Leave the oven door open slightly to allow air circulation, and it is even a good idea to have a fan running in the same room to aid it. It's great to do this on a cold day to help heat the house! Let the fruit dry in the oven, checking it every hour. It should take somewhere between 6 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the apple slices and berries. You will know they are done when you poke them and feel only slightly spongy - they will be mostly hard.

At this point, you can take the rack out of the oven. Let it cool slightly, then remove the pieces and put into a container. If pieces are stuck, it can help to use a knife to help get the off. You can now crush it up and use it for tea if you are going to use it within a few weeks. If you are planning on storing if for a long time, put it in a deep freeze (at least 0°) for a few days. This is very important especially if you have wild fruit, as it kills insect eggs. If you don't have a deep freeze, you probably know someone who does. You could also wait until winter to make if you live in a more northerly climate, and just put it outside. (-40, anyone?)

If you want to make this tea extra special, pop a cinnamon stick in the mug!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Well, we are here at the start of the last weekend before Mabon. We are actually having our public Mabon ritual on Sunday. We have a small community at the moment, and not a lot of people can come yet, but we are slowly growing. If you're local to central Alberta and you want to come, check our event listing! I love Mabon. I was going to say it's my favorite Sabbat, but I have a lot of favorites actually. Each of them has special things that I love. I love fall, though. When Sean and I were first planning our wedding, we wanted a fall wedding.

Mabon is often called the Wiccan Thanksgiving. It's never a bad thing to give thanks for the things we have. Something that is equally as important is recognizing the things that we have worked towards. This is a major theme of our upcoming ritual on Sunday. Mabon is a harvest festival, and it is a perfect time to look at what things we've been able to harvest from our own lives. What was something that we've planted, tended, watched grow through the seasons and finally harvested?

This biggest thing for me is my cookbook. I've wanted to be an since I was in grade 2 or 3. Its only in the last few years that I've worked hard at achieving it, though I've written a lot of things. When we look at our lives in terms of ideas being seeds, it's easier to see. We have ideas all the time, constantly in fact. Acting upon an idea is like planting a seed - you are planing it in your mind as a goal. You work at achieving that goal like a farmer plowing a field, weeding it, watering it, preparing for that seed to grow into a plant mature enough to harvest.

What we did in the past is a direct correlation to our present. Right now, we are harvesting things in our lives which we planted a year ago, two years ago, or a lifetime ago. We need to recognize these things, and the power we each have in making our lives what we want them to be.

What things have you harvested in your life? What are you planting now?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Some of you may know that I've been writing a cookbook for the last little while. What I can tell you now, because it is finally official, is that I'm now an author at Wyrdwood Publications, who will be publishing my cookbook as an eBook!

Seriously!

Really!

I told a friend of mine that the day I found out totally trumped my wedding day.

I even told Sean that.

He agreed, haha!

Regardless, here are some links you may want to check out!

My author page on the Wyrdwood Publications site - check out their other authors and the site in general. There are some awesome books on there. Wyrdwood Publications is an incredibly eco-friendly company, which is one of the things I love about them. This is why they publish only eBooks.

Also, my author page on Facebook - please like me! I'll have more updates there than I will here, but I will be posting updates here as I get them as well.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

If you've checked the side bar occasionally, it is obvious that with ten votes, Steph of the Coexist Cafe and her hilarious F*CK THIS TIARA I WANTED A PONY Caption wins!

I love it. I totally want that picture on a T-Shirt with that caption under it.

Unfortunately, it appears that the picture of what Steph won has disapearred from my computer. Steph has won a gorgeous print of a fairy which I can't really describe, among other things. Man, I wish I had pictures. I'll take another one and update this when I have it. Steph, I'll contact you on Facebook later today!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Let me preface this by saying that my blog has changed. When I started out, it was mainly to write about Wicca from a family practice point of view, and I've sort of gotten away from that. I'm going to be attempting to put out more family oriented things, but they will be mixed in with the other things I post.

Which brings us to celebrating Mabon with children. Brianna is old enough to know what is going on most of the time, which makes it a little more exciting - Yule this year is going to be something else! So what to do with your kids to celebrate Mabon?

- Go on a nature walk. These are great to do at any Sabbat, but Mabon is my personal favorite for it. Living in Canada, a nature walk at Mabon means picking up different kinds of fallen leaves, watching the Canadian Geese fly south (and occasionally finding a feather!), picking the last of the clover.

- Make a Green Man leaf collage. On that nature walk, pick up as many fallen leaves as you can. Bring them home and glue them in place on some recycled paper in the shape of the Green Man! If you use egg whites as the glue, then you can recycle or compost the whole project after you're done displaying it.

- Visit an orchard. If you are lucky enough to live near an apple orchard, they are fabulous places to see! Kids love picking out all the different kinds of apples.

- Go to the Farmer's Market. The Farmer's Market in our town ends at the beginning of October, so September is a great time to visit. There is less produce, so there is so much more good, local entertainment.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

On September 11, 2001, I was in grade 9. I'm not going to reiterate all the things that happened that day. We all know. I had been Wiccan for 2 years. I remember clearly the Silence that Star Foster mentioned the other day.

We were told shortly after getting to school that morning, and the only teacher who didn't let their students go watch the TV in the library was ours. Apparently literature was more important to her. I didn't see any of the footage until I got home. I remember my 14 year old self being terrified at the thought of war.

In the decades since, there has been a lot of hammering back and forth as to who should have done what, and whose fault it is. It doesn't matter though.

What matters is that people lost their lives that day. What matters is what we take out of the experience - do we become afraid of each other, and ignore our neighbors? Or do we band together, forming communities where there were none, bound together through experience and the simple connection of our humanity?

I like to think that we have done the latter. Have you ever heard of MeetUps? It's a website, meetup.com, which was born out of 9/11 - and the need for community and connection after tragedy.

Yes, that was a sad day - and the memories of the fallen deserve better than conspiracy theories, fear mongering and hate. If out of a tragic day can come community, hope and love for our fellow man, then it wasn't in vain.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

I was planning on posting a bunch of pictures today. I made some awesome new things for Etsy, and now my camera won't upload - I think it is just a problem with the battery though. Another day.

My posting schedule is going to be very... unscheduled for the next little while. I will definitely start posting the next series, and I will post the winner of the caption contest, and I'll post bits in-between. I got some wonderful news recently which I can't share with you yet, but I will! I'll be very busy for the next few months, until January at least. Just a few busy months coming up.

That said, I'm not going to apologize when I can't post, or don't post as regularly as I used to. I love blogging, I love all of my followers and friends, but my life is first priority.

I feel the need to state it here simply for accountability - I've started calorie counting. I'm making a real effort to lose weight, and not just diet this time - to change the way I eat and the way I live. I'll post updates from time to time.

I'm hoping to get some guest posts going to fill up some of the empty spaces. Any takers? If you are interested in doing a guest post, send me an email at asimplelifeinspired@gmail.com!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Contrary to what my title seems like, I'm not actually starting my next series yet. No, this is the name of a poem.

The Butterfly

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone…

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world goodbye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto
But I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.

Butterflies don't live in here,
In the ghetto.

Pavel Friedmann 4.6.1942

The Butterfly Project was shared with me today by CauldronKeeper. It is an effort by the Holocaust Museum Houston (and the world) to remember the 1.5 million children who died during the holocaust. You can find out more at their website, but the short of it is that they are collecting butterflies...1.5 million of them.

CauldronKeeper is making a butterfly, and I am going to as well. I'm thinking embroidery, but we shall see!

On a side note, I'm feeling better. I'm really trying not to over do it and get worse again.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I'm still very sick. I won't regale you with my illness, but I have something important to share with you all today.

Some of you, maybe most of you, know of Joni, the wonderful woman behind Tales of a Kitchen Witch. She posted on her Facebook page late last night about a good friend of hers, Suzanne, who is trying to bring her baby home. I'll copy some of the info in here:

I am trying to raise money for my friend to fly back to Rhode Island to get her son. She had to relocate from RI to CA for her job in April, and left her three year old with his grandma while she set up housing and daycare, thinking she would be ready to get him in a month. She has struggled all summer, living thinking that she would be ready to get him in a month. She has struggled all summer, living paycheck to paycheck and can never find any extra money to go get her baby.

So go to her page on ChipIn, read the rest of the story. It's short, I promise.

And please, donate even a dollar. As a mother, I can't imagine being separated from my baby. I'm so freaking emotional, even just thinking about it sets me to tears. No kidding.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Posting has not gone well this week, as I'm sure you have all noticed. I've just been feeling blah, and late last night as my throat puffed up to 3 times its normal size I figured out why.

Oh, the joys of throat infection. I get this one almost chronically, I've had it several times. Not much to be done about it. If it lasts longer than a week, I'll go get meds for it. As it is, I'm drinking hot honey and lemon water, and eating soup.

So, that's it for this week. I'll try again on Monday.

In the meantime, remember to let me know if there are any animals you want covered in my next series.